1 29 26 Mexico
Set 1
The show opens with good readings of both Gumbo and NICU. Gumbo is 12 minutes and gets things cookin good. No x factor to be found but its a great openin.
NICU quickly follows, delivering a good, standard reading. Nothing more, nothing less. It must be said that the energy is here, but Trey is not having a particularly inspired night. Nothing bad, but his playing is kinda "hesitant" or whatever. Oh well.
The first must hear of the show, and first piece of X Factor magic is an absolutely kickass Caspian in slot 3!!!! Boy, thats fresh!! Man oh man this sucker is SICK!!! Very hot, it legitimately goes type 2 - I would say so anyways. Its 12 minutes long and rocks hard throughout. Slowly the jam takes on a darkly tense vibe and gets rather heavy. Fishman introduces a kind of tropical-yet-heavh beat and we definitely leave Caspian. Its hard rocking with a slightly funky undertone, with lots of Trey background loops underneath everything. Trey is playing very restrained though, but everyone syncs up and they are playing tightly as one. It must be said though that it really feels like Fishman is driving this one. Slowly the jam kinda just fizzles out which is unfortunate - thanks TreyDHD.
All in all this is an exceptional modern reading while it lasted even though it feel prematurely concluded.Cant be too mad though they it gets killed in favor of an 16 minute Oblivion. Man I am so glad its girthing back up again - it was HUGE in 2023 then strangely devolved in 2024.... The song itself is very energetic, sounding super tight and grooving perfectly tonight. Treys playing still isn't perfect but it does seem to "tighten up" a good bit as well. Around 8 minutes the fiery type 1 unfortunately shifts quickly into upbeat bliss rocking. Nice, gooey synths by Page keep it from being totally boring as Trey gets lost in "meandering chord land". Oh no, the jam is losing direction.
Eventually, Trey and Page sync up on a blissfully soft kind of melodic motif, Page moving to the keys. The jam is completely in soft Bliss Rock Zone by this point. The jam begins to lose steam and gets really directionless and meandering for a while but finally things slowly start to click again and we start to head for the sky with a renewed hard rocking energy. Things peak pretty good but nothing particularly mind blowing. Overall this was a really disappointing Jam that felt like it tried real hard and had moments of good stuff but kept getting lost in meandering lack of direction ville.It reminded me of the Fuego from night one which is a bad thing.
Up next is a beautiful Brian and Robert played with the acoustic guitar and piano and it sounds gorgeous.
Following that the set takes a much-needed upswing and has a successful final quarter. A really, really nice 14 minute Stash sees everyone locking in and delivering a smashing type one reading. It's not necessarily must here but it's definitely excellent.
The good times continue with a lengthy Ya Mar. Ya Mar is terrific in features Trey's best playing of the set bar none. Seriously his soloing on this is just ridiculously perfect. This I'm calling must hear all day.
The set loses on a high note with and inessential but typically fiery SANTOS that gets the job done.
All in all this wasn't a particularly great set. Definitely not bad at all in any way but it seemed like it took a good while for things to truly click. Trey is having a hesitant time with his playing for the first 2/3 or so of the set. The energy is there and the typical playing is tight but it's one of those sets where they just can't "lock in".
Caspian and Ya Mar are must hear. The rest is inoffensively enjoyable aside from that frustrating Oblivion.
Set 2
Wow! The second half of the show opens up with the massive combo of a 21 minute WOPE into a 28 minute Ruby Waves!!!
WOPE is absolutely ridiculous. At first you think it's a waste. The song itself is fine but nothing spectacular and the jam gets off to a good start with the guys spending a while in an ethereal kind of uptempo hazy Bliss psychedelia kind of jam. Page and Trace syncing up good with great use of backwards loupage. This Jam has a really cool kind of slow build haziness where it transitions from one zone to the next without you even realizing it. Extreme flow on this sucker it's fantastic. Around the 10-minute Mark unfortunately the standard meandering Bliss Rock begins for a couple minutes going all the way to the 13 minute mark.. Then, the X Factor strikes in a massive way. The jam quickly turns completely dark and they spend the next 8 minutes in one of the most glorious, melt downy, psychedelic firestorm jams of recent times. Basically they do an up-tempo 20 Years Later jam and just and just go crazy melting everything with wall pedal and backwards loops and synthesizers and just crazy darkness. Absolutely must hear at all costs this is phenomenal. No seriously this is freaking amazing it's one of the best sections of music up there with the very best of 2025!!!!
Then at just the right moment they shift gears and launch into that 28 minute Ruby Waves. And holy mother of all that is unholy what in the name of Satan's minions from the wormhole black vortex of hell is this monstrosity. The jam begins quickly around the 4-5 minute mark immediately going into a psychedelic Zone, dark from the outset. Trey and Paige going nuts with synthesizers and backwards delay etc.
-----This goes all the way to the 8 minutes mark and it's absolutely glorious. Around 8 minutes things shift into more normal sounding rocking at last and until the 12 minute mark they basically do the whole standard red hot uplifting type 1 thing. Around 12 minutes things start to take a darker turn and they slowly work out of the upbeat Bliss rocking. Trey and Paige magically sync up on a really cool uplifting motif and the jam is just skyrocketing into the Galaxy from here.
---------From 14 to roughly 18 minutes they enter the "edging" zone, working towards that inevitable peak, teasing us for multiple minutes. Every time you think it's about to finally explode they pull back ever so slightly and work it back up once more.
----------Finally around the 18 minute Mark the insanity hits. They go to peak this sucker and they increase the tempo faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and faster like the Dick's 2024 Ruby waves. Things turn into an absolutely chaotic and hellish swirling vortex of black evil insanity. This goes for a couple minutes with Trey setting a damn Loop of the whole thing so it never ends and they build this massive dark Haze of evil. HOLY MOLY LORD HAVE MERCY ON OUR FORSAKEN SOULS!!!! THE UNIVERSE IS FALLING APART!!!
---To his credit Fishman expects the jam to lead back into the song at this point as usual and he's swiftly and perfectly reintroduces the Ruby waves drum beat. Thank God it's not to be but he keeps the drum beat going for several minutes throughout and it works so good. For several minutes this goes on until Fishman changes the beat back again and works the jam into the next section.
-----From the 21 minute mark, the hazy cloud of evil subsides but they keep a panic-inducing staccato kind of chordal thing going for about 2 more minutes keeping it just as dark simply a little bit less noisy. You will be holding your chest during this section concerned that you are having a heart attack basically.
---------Around the 23 minute mark they work back out of it and into some straight ahead rocking but Page refuses to let go of the darkness and continues his sense underneath. Around the 25 minute mark things turn evil once more and the jam melts down into a slow sludgy kind of workout.
------Eventually the jam slowly begins to die and they execute one of the absolute finest finishes to a jam I've ever heard in my life with them slowly impatiently fading down the jam into nothing over the course of about a minute.
Like, what in the F do you even say to a jam like this?! This is a Mount Rushmore Ruby. All day. Period. End of story. Top five if not top three in my opinion. This Jam is absolutely extraordinary going through about 20 different sections. It felt like they would stay in a section for 2 or 3 minutes and then perfectly transition out go through another and then go through a third and then so on and so forth. Ridiculously inspired with more X Factor magic than an X Factor magic factory could make in a lifetime. They tore open a wormhole vortex in the fabric of SpaceTime and dropped 25,000 hydrogen bombs of nuclear evil destruction into our laps.
That made the preceeding WOPE sound like a damn version of Brian and Robert. That single Jam was stronger than the entirety of the 2025 New Year's run. Honestly that was probably the strongest Jam they've played since Birmingham in the fall or the SPAC run.
That makes the Dayton 2023 and New Years 2024 versions sound like childs play. That wasnt a 10/10. Thats a damn 1,000,000/10 right there.
And then into the most perfectly placed lonely trip of all time....
Wow! The second half of the show opens up with the massive combo of a 21 minute WOPE into a 28 minute Ruby Waves!!!
WOPE is absolutely ridiculous. At first you think it's a waste. The song itself is fine but nothing spectacular and the jam gets off to a good start with the guys spending a while in an ethereal kind of uptempo hazy Bliss psychedelia kind of jam. Page and Trace syncing up good with great use of backwards loupage. This Jam has a really cool kind of slow build haziness where it transitions from one zone to the next without you even realizing it. Extreme flow on this sucker it's fantastic. Around the 10-minute Mark unfortunately the standard meandering Bliss Rock begins for a couple minutes going all the way to the 13 minute mark.. Then, the X Factor strikes in a massive way. The jam quickly turns completely dark and they spend the next 8 minutes in one of the most glorious, melt downy, psychedelic firestorm jams of recent times. Basically they do an up-tempo 20 Years Later jam and just and just go crazy melting everything with wall pedal and backwards loops and synthesizers and just crazy darkness. Absolutely must hear at all costs this is phenomenal. No seriously this is freaking amazing it's one of the best sections of music up there with the very best of 2025!!!!
Then at just the right moment they shift gears and launch into that 28 minute Ruby Waves. And holy mother of all that is unholy what in the name of Satan's minions from the wormhole black vortex of hell is this monstrosity. The jam begins quickly around the 4-5 minute mark immediately going into a psychedelic Zone, dark from the outset. Trey and Paige going nuts with synthesizers and backwards delay etc.
-----This goes all the way to the 8 minutes mark and it's absolutely glorious. Around 8 minutes things shift into more normal sounding rocking at last and until the 12 minute mark they basically do the whole standard red hot uplifting type 1 thing. Around 12 minutes things start to take a darker turn and they slowly work out of the upbeat Bliss rocking. Trey and Paige magically sync up on a really cool uplifting motif and the jam is just skyrocketing into the Galaxy from here.
---------From 14 to roughly 18 minutes they enter the "edging" zone, working towards that inevitable peak, teasing us for multiple minutes. Every time you think it's about to finally explode they pull back ever so slightly and work it back up once more.
----------Finally around the 18 minute Mark the insanity hits. They go to peak this sucker and they increase the tempo faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and faster like the Dick's 2024 Ruby waves. Things turn into an absolutely chaotic and hellish swirling vortex of black evil insanity. This goes for a couple minutes with Trey setting a damn Loop of the whole thing so it never ends and they build this massive dark Haze of evil. HOLY MOLY LORD HAVE MERCY ON OUR FORSAKEN SOULS!!!! THE UNIVERSE IS FALLING APART!!!
---To his credit Fishman expects the jam to lead back into the song at this point as usual and he's swiftly and perfectly reintroduces the Ruby waves drum beat. Thank God it's not to be but he keeps the drum beat going for several minutes throughout and it works so good. For several minutes this goes on until Fishman changes the beat back again and works the jam into the next section.
-----From the 21 minute mark, the hazy cloud of evil subsides but they keep a panic-inducing staccato kind of chordal thing going for about 2 more minutes keeping it just as dark simply a little bit less noisy. You will be holding your chest during this section concerned that you are having a heart attack basically.
---------Around the 23 minute mark they work back out of it and into some straight ahead rocking but Page refuses to let go of the darkness and continues his sense underneath. Around the 25 minute mark things turn evil once more and the jam melts down into a slow sludgy kind of workout.
------Eventually the jam slowly begins to die and they execute one of the absolute finest finishes to a jam I've ever heard in my life with them slowly impatiently fading down the jam into nothing over the course of about a minute.
Like, what in the F do you even say to a jam like this?! This is a Mount Rushmore Ruby. All day. Period. End of story. Top five if not top three in my opinion. This Jam is absolutely extraordinary going through about 20 different sections. It felt like they would stay in a section for 2 or 3 minutes and then perfectly transition out go through another and then go through a third and then so on and so forth. Ridiculously inspired with more X Factor magic than an X Factor magic factory could make in a lifetime. They tore open a wormhole vortex in the fabric of SpaceTime and dropped 25,000 hydrogen bombs of nuclear evil destruction into our laps.
That made the preceeding WOPE sound like a damn version of Brian and Robert. That single Jam was stronger than the entirety of the 2025 New Year's run. Honestly that was probably the strongest Jam they've played since Birmingham in the fall or the SPAC run.
That makes the Dayton 2023 and New Years 2024 versions sound like childs play. That wasnt a 10/10. Thats a damn 1,000,000/10 right there.
And then into the most perfectly placed lonely trip of all time....
Lonely Trip arrives just in time to save us from the apocalyptic hellscape of that Ruby Waves. This is one of the best versions I've ever heard, totaling almost 9 minutes in length. It's absolutely exceptional on all fronts and made me cry that's how good it is. Must hear all day.
The set concludes with a ridiculous 16 minute Mind. No joke, this might be a contender for my new favorite all-time version. Yes I'm calling this an all-timer it's that good. Mind worked so ridiculously good slowly easing up out of the balladry and back into rocking. This version stays in type 1 basically but it's extremely groovy and dark. Pure molten lava fire from start to finish. It's an unbelievable version up there with the best molten jams of recent years. Must hear all day long.
The show finishes with a nice encore of a brand new song, Dancing In Midair and an Antelope. Dancing is absolutely terrific, probably the best new song I can think of since Mind. I definitely hope this stays in the repertoire. For a debut it's fantastic sounding fully formed with excellent soloing and great work from everyone else. Really cool stuttering synth lines from Page throughout. This song sounds very aquatic, it's definitely begging for the full studio treatment and I can't wait to hear it on the next album hopefully.
Antelope is red hot but average.
All in all, HOLY F NUTS!!!! WHERE DID THEY PULL THIS SECOND HALF FROM?!?!?! The entire second set is must hear and I would definitely call Dancing must here as well.
Set one was kind of lousy overall really and I couldn't really give it more than like a 3.7 or something. Set two definitely falls in the 4.3 or 4.4 area for me. Currently the show has a 4.0 rating so I guess he evens out but I can't overstate enough just how Beyond exceptional the second set is.
Wow.
The set concludes with a ridiculous 16 minute Mind. No joke, this might be a contender for my new favorite all-time version. Yes I'm calling this an all-timer it's that good. Mind worked so ridiculously good slowly easing up out of the balladry and back into rocking. This version stays in type 1 basically but it's extremely groovy and dark. Pure molten lava fire from start to finish. It's an unbelievable version up there with the best molten jams of recent years. Must hear all day long.
The show finishes with a nice encore of a brand new song, Dancing In Midair and an Antelope. Dancing is absolutely terrific, probably the best new song I can think of since Mind. I definitely hope this stays in the repertoire. For a debut it's fantastic sounding fully formed with excellent soloing and great work from everyone else. Really cool stuttering synth lines from Page throughout. This song sounds very aquatic, it's definitely begging for the full studio treatment and I can't wait to hear it on the next album hopefully.
Antelope is red hot but average.
All in all, HOLY F NUTS!!!! WHERE DID THEY PULL THIS SECOND HALF FROM?!?!?! The entire second set is must hear and I would definitely call Dancing must here as well.
Set one was kind of lousy overall really and I couldn't really give it more than like a 3.7 or something. Set two definitely falls in the 4.3 or 4.4 area for me. Currently the show has a 4.0 rating so I guess he evens out but I can't overstate enough just how Beyond exceptional the second set is.
Wow.
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